Fingerprinting on the rise in face of cookie demise
Fingerprinting is on the rise as advertisers and tech platforms seek workarounds to browser changes and tightening privacy regulation (New York Times).
Key points:
- Fingerprinting maps browser and device traits, building a data profile that can follow people around the web
- As such it’s harder to block – and trace
- Google said it would introduce an anti-fingerprinting feature earlier this year, but no detail yet
While third party cookies come under fire from both browser makers and regulators, the ad machine has found some workarounds that may be harder to trace. That could make any incoming changes following the ACCC's digital platforms inquiry more challenging to implement.
Fingerprinting is something of a catch-all term for any method of trying to identify a user via aspects that make a browser unique. Some studies suggest it can be accurate to 99%.
While Google has announced plans to "aggressively" go after those that try to work around cookie blocking via fingerprinting, the efficacy of those efforts remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, if privacy regulators force an ad ecosystem rethink over privacy concerns, the big question is how they police those rules, and the resources required to enforce them.
